Backup Your Browser Bookmarks
By: Sandy Berger Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2006-01-13 08:46:32.345867-05:00
If you often bookmark Web pages that you want to return to later, you've probably accumulated a wealth of information in your Web browser's Favorites or Bookmark folder. But if your hard drive were to crash, you would lose all that information and end up back at square one. If your bookmarks are important to you, then you should back them up regularly. Fortunately, this is a relatively easy task.
If you use Internet Explorer, you simply open the program, click on File from the menu at the top of the page and select Import and Export. A Wizard window will appear to walk you through the process. When you select Next, you will be asked to choose what you want to do. You can import or export favorites and cookies. Make your choice by highlighting what you want to do.
Exporting means making a copy and sending it to another location. Importing means accessing a copy and bringing it into your computer. To backup your Favorites, you will want to choose Export Favorites.
The next window will ask you to choose the folder from which you want to export. If you want to export all of your Favorites you will choose the main folder that is called Favorites. If you choose a sub-folder, the wizard will only copy the Favorites in that folder.
Next the Wizard will ask you the location to which you want to export your Favorites. You will usually use the "Export to a File or Address" choice. The default location completed in the box is the "My Documents" folder. You can accept that location or use the Browse button to choose another location.
Now you simply click Finish and a copy of your Favorites will appear in the specified location. If you look in the folder that you specified, you will see a file called "bookmark.htm" which now contains your Favorites. You can copy this file to a floppy disk, CD, or flash drive to backup the file or to prepare for transfering your Favorites to another computer. To get your Favorites onto another computer, use the Import Wizard to bring the contents of the "bookmark.htm" file copied onto the disk, CD, or drive to the other computer.
If you use Firefox, Opera, or an Internet browser other than Internet Explorer you can search their help menu for instructions on importing and exporting their Favorites. You will find that the processes are fairly similar between browsers. Remember that some browsers use the term Bookmarks instead of Favorites.
To backup up the Bookmarks in Firefox, choose Bookmarks from the main menu, then Manage Bookmarks, then select Bookmarks Manager and click on File to find the Import and Export functions. Opera also uses the term Bookmarks rather than Favorites. In Opera, the Import and Export functions are listed separately in the main File menu. Once you access the Import and Export functions, both Firefox and Opera operate similarly to Internet Explorer in how the import and export functions work.
If you are switching browsers, Firefox and Opera both make it easy to export your Favorites from Internet Explorer into their respective programs. In both Firefox and Opera you simply choose File from the main menu, then Import, then select the browser from which you want to import. Firefox even has an easy-to-follow wizard that will walk you through the process.
So, if you rely on the Favorite or Bookmark list in your browser, it's important to back them up so you don't lose the valuable information that they contain. And, using the Import and Export features available in these Web browsers makes this task easy to do.
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